News

It is with great excitement and anticipation that the Listowel Memorial Hospital, the Listowel Memorial Hospital Foundation, the Listowel Medical Centre, John Wilkinson, MPP for Perth-Wellington and the North Perth Family Health Team announce the beginning of construction of the Fisher Family Primary Care Centre. The new centre is being named in honor of the Fisher family and their generous contribution toward the capital construction.

As we draw to the close of 2010, AFHTO salutes the continued progress of the Family Health Teams of Ontario.  We are now 200 strong, thanks to your vision, commitment and innovation, proving the value of the FHT model.

Those with a chronic disease live with their condition every day – and even though they rely on the support of their healthcare team, they can feel isolated and alone. And when their condition pushes outside norms, they can feel confused and frightened. Their healthcare team can also be hampered by a lack of information – on the current medical condition of their chronic disease patient and on their overall medical status – because they see the patient infrequently and because the patient’s medical record is often not available for sharing amongst team members.

AFHTO has just launched a Members Only feature -- click on the Member Login tab to enter. Here you’ll find a wealth of resources to help members in governing, managing and delivering care in their FHTs. Resources on AFHTO’s Members Only website includes 27 presentations from the AFHTO 2010 conference, guides and toolkits prepared specifically for FHTs, convenient links to resources from QIIP and the Quality in Family Practice Project, and Members Only news.

Apply by December 10 to join QIIP’s Office Practice Redesign Action Group. QIIP (Quality Improvement and Innovation Partnership) is a non-profit organization funded by the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, focused on advancing improvement in primary healthcare in Ontario.

The doctors of Wise Elephant FHT have adopted a group of small villages in Samthar Valley, West Bengal, India and partnered with a local NGO called Awake and Shine in India.  Their current project is to convert a dirt footpath into a stone footpath to make it usable all year round for the schoolchildren.  As the villages are in the foothills of the Himalayas, the dirt footpaths to this school become next to impassable due to the heavy monsoon rains. As part of their fundraising effort, Drs.

Harrow, ON – This weekend, 148 students from the Windsor and London campuses of the Schulich School of Medicine have gathered in Windsor/Essex County to forge closer relationships between the two sites. Eighty-four of the students have opted for a tour of Essex County. This group is here with you this afternoon. They have been split into smaller groups who have examined Leamington Hospital and the Leamington Family Health Team. They have been to the southernmost point of Canada and now they are at the southernmost Family Health Team here in Harrow.

Matt Galloway, host of CBC Radio's Metro Morning interviewed Dr. Jane Philpott, Lead Physician, Health for All Family Health Team to learn how family health teams work and what makes them more effective in providing care. Click here to listen to the interview.